Decriminalizing Domestic Violence Quotes

Love don't make you bruise Nell. ~ LeeAnn Whitaker

All the lonely tears I cried were my choice."
~Love is respect ♥~ ~ Charlena E. Jackson

For too long the term domestic violence has been used as a
"soft" term which suggests it emerges in an intimate context that is
private and somehow less threatening, less brutal, than the violence
that takes place outside the home. This is not so, since more women
are beaten and murdered in the home than on the outside. ~ Bell Hooks

Your words manipulated me, and I fell for it every single time. Your eyes and words were like a snake. I was hypnotized by your lies. You squeezed me to the point that I suffocated, died mentally, came back to life, and was under your spell. Loving you was cruel, but the craziest thing about it all was that my dumb ass somehow felt safe."
~Love is respect ♥~ ~ Charlena E. Jackson

Trauma may happen to you, but it can never define you. ~ Melinda Longtin

The effects of abuse are devastating and far-reaching. Domestic violence speaks many languages, has many colours and lives in many different communities. ~ Sandra Pupatello

Arleen thanked Pana. Getting off the phone, she thanked Jesus. She smiled. When she smiled she looked like a different person. The press had loosened its grip. From landlords, she had heard eighty-nine nos but one yes.

Jori accepted his mother's high five. He and his brother would have to switch schools. Jori didn't care. He switched schools all the time. Between seventh and eighth grades, he had attended five different schools - when he went at all. At the domestic-violence shelter alone, Jori had racked up seventeen consecutive absences. Arleen saw school as a higher-order need, something to worry about after she found a house. ~ Matthew Desmond

Alcohol does not a change a person's fundamental value system. People's personalities when intoxicated, even though somewhat altered, still bear some relationship to who they are when sober. When you are drunk you may behave in ways that are silly or embarrassing; you might be overly familiar or tactlessly honest, or perhaps careless or forgetful. But do you knock over little old ladies for a laugh? Probably not. Do you sexually assault the clerk at the convenience store? Unlikely. People's conduct while intoxicated continues to be governed by their core foundation of beliefs and attitudes, even though there is some loosening of the structure. Alcohol encourages people to let loose what they have simmering below the surface.
ABUSERS MAKE CONSCIOUS CHOICES EVEN WHILE INTOXICATED ~ Lundy Bancroft

I lived in Complexo do Alemao until I was 12, dealt with domestic violence in my childhood and faced difficulties in life. ~ Maria Das Gracas Silva Foster

There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable. ~ Ban Ki-moon

There are many women in their late teens and early twenties who have either experienced violence in a relationship or have witnessed it at home in their childhood. ~ Miquita Oliver

Violence is hidden within democratic structures because they are not radically democratic - Western democracy is merely a domestic convenience of consumerism. ~ Edward Bond

I've been doing this work [ambassador of VDay]for a long time, and there are so many ways that we have to work to eradicate domestic violence and violence against women, this felt like such a tangible way to make a difference. ~ Kerry Washington

Men who, in their hearts, really care no more for mankind than See-wise cared for the fish, lift their voices in shouts of a spurious humanity, in order to raise themselves to power, on the shoulders of an excited populace. Bloodshed, domestic violence, impracticable efforts to attain an impossible perfection, and all the evils of a civil conflict are forgotten or blindly attempted, in order to raise themselves in the arms of those they call the people. ~ James Fenimore Cooper

There's no such thing as "just a domestic". ~ Patrick Stewart

When a woman is convinced that she can stop the violence in her marriage, her stubborn determination feeds her sense of failure each time she sees that she can't regulate her husband's demands and abuses. In a perverse type of review, she may then ask herself how she could have been so stupid as to overlook the early warnings. This further diminishes her self-esteem. ~ Susan Weitzman

In 1990, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported, "Studies of the Surgeon General's office reveal that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of fifteen and forty-four, more common than automobile accidents, muggings, and cancer deaths combined. ~ Rebecca Solnit

I did not know that the first step in any domestic violence relationship is to seduce and charm the victim. I also did not know that the second step is to isolate the victim. The next step in the domestic violence pattern is to introduce the threat of violence and see how she reacts. We victims know something you [non-victims] usually don't. It's incredibly dangerous to leave an abuser, because the final step in the domestic violence pattern is to 'kill her'. Over 70% of domestic violence murders happens after the victim has ended the relationship. ~ Leslie Morgan Steiner

Feminism gained popularity as a result of 'secular' work and scholarship, but the line between sacred and secular is man-made. Because God is the source of truth, Christians can still give thanks to God for the good works associated with feminism, such as the gaining of status for women as 'persons' under the law, voting, owning property, and defending themselves in a court of law against domestic violence and rape. ~ Sarah Bessey

For it is evident that those who regard the whole earth as their future territory will stress the organ of domestic violence and will rule conquered territory with police methods and personnel rather than with the army. ~ Hannah Arendt

It's incredibly dangerous to leave an abuser, because the final step in the domestic violence pattern is: kill her. ~ Leslie Morgan Steiner

There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt; and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult. ~ Philip Dormer Stanhope

A lot of people think that domestic violence is if someone hits, kicks, [or] punches you. ~ Robin McGraw

Abuse is the weakest expression of strength. It is weakness to destroy what you ought to protect, build and make better. ~ Kingsley Opuwari Manuel

When a man's face contorts in bitterness and hatred, he looks a little insane. When his mood changes from elated to assaultive in the time it takes to turn around, his mental stability seems open to question. When he accuses his partner of plotting to harm him, he seems paranoid. It is no wonder that the partner of an abusive man would come to suspect that he was mentally ill.
Yet the great majority of my clients over the years have been psychologically "normal." Their minds work logically; they understand cause and effect; they don't hallucinate. Their perceptions of most life circumstances are reasonably accurate. They get good reports at work; they do well in school or training programs; and no one other than their partners - and children - thinks that there is anything wrong with them. Their value system is unhealthy, not their psychology. ~ Lundy Bancroft

There is life after abuse. This is mine. ~ Lindsay Fischer

Loving you had a lot of consequences that I never dodged."
"~Love is respect ♥~ ~ Charlena E. Jackson

You don't have to wait for someone to treat you bad repeatedly. All it takes is once, and if they get away with it that once, if they know they can treat you like that, then it sets the pattern for the future. ~ Jane Green

If [George] Zimmerman had been arrested for domestic violence, Trayvon Martin might still be alive. ~ Gloria Steinem

Young men need to show women the respect they deserve and recognize sexual assault and to do their part to stop it. ~ Barack Obama

I have been broken down many times before - and I am always the one who is left to pick up the pieces. Most of the time, there are too many pieces to pick up, so I leave them where they lay and never look back. I have to be honest with myself, that is one of my mistakes, instead of walking away, I should have picked up the pieces. That way, I would have learned and grown from what was left behind."
~Love is respect ♥~ ~ Charlena E. Jackson

We live in a society where people are often more offended by those who point out child abuse than by the abuse itself. In other words, society does not view abuse as the problem; the problem is you pointing it out. Society's basic mindset is that "If we don't talk about abuse, then it's not happening." Similarly, children are attacked when they point out the dysfunction around them. ~ Darius Cikanavicius

The central attitudes driving Rambo are:
Strength and aggressiveness are good; compassion and conflict resolution are bad.
Anything that could be even remotely associated with homosexuality, including walking away from possible violence or showing any fear or grief, has to be avoided at any cost.
Femaleness and femininity (which he associates with homosexuality) are inferior. Women are here to serve men and be protected by them.
Men should never hit women, because it is unmanly to do so. However, exceptions to this rule can be made for my own partner if her behavior is bad enough. Men need to keep their women in line.
You are a thing that belongs to me, akin to a trophy. ~ Lundy Bancroft

We have this judgmental way of looking at the idea of leaving a home or a family, and our society has reinforced this idea that if we "run away," we are "running away from our problems." In some cases, though, to face certain problems (in this case, two family members who are not mentally stable and who are not going to face up to their issues) the family members who are capable of facing reality must realize that leaving is a viable option. Some environments are harmful. As fellow humans it is our job to judge less and encourage more when others choose to remove themselves from harmful environments. ~ A.S. King

When my skin had gone back to its even tone I slept with another man and discovered, my hands lying awkwardly on the sheet at either side of me, that I had forgotten what to do with them. I'm responsible and an adult again, full time. What remains is that my sensation thermostat has been thrown out of whack; it's been years and sometimes I wonder whether my body will ever again register above lukewarm. ~ Elizabeth McNeill

At the beginning of the day, it is all about the choices I make. It is about what I am willing to sacrifice - one thing I do know, I am not willing, and I do not want to sacrifice my life for anyone."
~Love is respect ♥~ ~ Charlena E. Jackson